The world we find ourselves in has been designed. By whom? For whom?
In a world not designed with us in mind, black people have continually hacked, remixed, and jerry-rigged the spaces, objects and ideas that we confront, and in that process, have not only brought about our own deliverance, but that of others as well. The current state that we, as citizens, find ourselves in is by design–social, institutional, physical – and we must design our way out of it.
Join this Mesa to learn and work with Dario Calmese by building and launching
the Institute of Black Imagination Interactive platform.
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A place dedicated to inspire all people, but particularly Black and Brown people, to uplift their traditions and show their culture in places of beauty, prestige and, provide them with the tools to reimagine the worlds they have inherited.
 Dario believes that the burden of liberation is on the oppressed, and knowing that the world we find ourselves in has been designed, and designed by oppressive forces. The spaces we find ourselves in were exclusionary from their genesis; hence,
The Institute of Black Imagination.
Dario Calmese is the creator of Institute of Black Imagination - currently existing as a podcast featuring conversations from the Pool of Black Geniuses through the lens of design - and set to become an interactive platform in 2021 (via this Mesa) and physical
space by 2022. In 2020 he made history as the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair in its 106-year history with his portrait of Oscar-winning actress, Viola Davis.Â
He is currently a NYC Urban Design Forum Fellow and his show direction for the fashion brand Pyer Moss has been consistently hailed in Vogue and The New York Times as the “best show of Fashion Month." He also serves on the global advisory board for Estee
Lauder Companies and is a professor at The New Parsons
School of Design in New York City. Â
Mesa is one of the most innovative and efficient learning-through-doing experiences in the world. We’ve been named as such by folks at SXSW and GOOD Magazine.
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We believe the only way to truly learn from someone we hugely admire is to step out from the speaker-audience format (where we tend to hear about perfect examples or hypothetical situations) and really work with that person: build something real together, going through the whole process of decision making and execution.Â
At a Mesa, you will not only be inspired by someone you admire: you will see how this person makes decisions, watch as they solve unexpected problems and collaborate with them in building and launching something real.
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We use a very simple formula:
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A brilliant leader at the head of the table
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A group of professionals that has every piece
of knowledge and skill the project needs
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One project that is conceived, developed and launched in 6 days.
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So just like any course or workshop it’s a paid experience.
The amount of learning a Mesa delivers by far surpasses what you would get sitting in a classroom ,and although you can receive a certificate of participation, the real outcome is being transformed as a professional.Â
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Even though it’s paid, Mesa still needs to make sure the final team has every piece of knowledge and skill to complete the mission, therefore the participants are carefully selected. We sell a maximum of 16 chairs per Mesa.
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The fee that is paid is used to cover production costs and to finance the project itself, since our goal is to officially launch in 6 days.
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Participating in a Mesa costs in 2 formats:
EARLY BIRD
Applications by May 15th 2021
USDÂ 1300 - in one payment
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STANDARD
Applications after May 15th 2021
USD 1800 - in one payment
by New York Time
When Pyer Moss Brought Police Brutality to the Runway
An oral history of the 2015 show, which resulted in death threats to Kerby Jean-Raymond, but solidified him as a powerful new voice in fashion.
 The genesis of the Institute of Black Imagination occurred after Dario acquired over 1,900 books from the personal archives of the great multi-hyphenate artist Geoffrey Holder. In 2015, following Geoffrey’s death, Dario pursued his costumes, sculptures, books, and half-finished scripts, and realized that what he left behind in his archives was a blueprint - a roadmap to interpreting the world around him.
IBI was created with the idea of making Geoffrey's work accessible to all but evolve to become something even bigger - the construction of pathway for self - actualization – a  learning framework, designed to foster critical discourse around the exclusionary nature of design, particularly in a built environment.
 With that in mind Dario started to apply for funding to create an expanded space to provide not only a broader level of access to the Holder-de Lavallade resource library, but a dialogue around the concept and power of the Black imagination.Â
In 2019, he began to build a platform for dialogue, with the development of a podcast. Seventeen episodes and 25,000 downloads later, the launching of the Institute of Black Imagination podcast manifested pro bono commitments from other skill sets: PR, Legal, Strategy, and Research, as well as a ready cadre of advisors.Â